The family of the great-grandmother who died after botched heart surgery refuse to believe a heart valve inserted upside-down led to her death.

A Newcastle coroner ruled that a heart valve was inserted the wrong way round during the 72-year-old’s surgery, inflicting “acute heart damage, from which she could not recover”.

During what should have been a routine operation at the Freeman Hospital in 2015, surgeon Asif Shah was replacing two diseased heart valves when stitches snapped at a crucial moment.

It was the first time Dr Shah had done this particular procedure as the lead consultant, and he told the inquest that when the sutures broke he had to remove the mechanical aortic valve. When it was finally re-inserted, it had been placed upside down.

The mistake was discovered later by the doctor’s senior colleagues, but too much damage had been done to the Sheila Hynes’s heart for her to survive. She never woke from the operation.

Sheila Hynes, who died after a heart valve was put in upside down (Image: PA)

Mrs Hynes died in intensive care a week later, after a second operation to try and get her heart working again failed.

On the third day of an inquest into the death, coroner Karen Dilks gave a narrative verdict and said: “Opportunities were missed to identify and rectify the position of the valve, causing Mrs Hynes acute heart damage from which she could not recover.”

The coroner said there were only four other cases of valves being inserted the wrong way world wide, describing what happened to Mrs Hynes as a “tragedy”.

Speaking on behalf of her family after the inquest, Mrs Hynes’ daughter Jan Hopper called the evidence “a cover up.”

She said: ““No matter how many times we hear the reasons for what went wrong and why, we will never be able to overlook the fact that my mother died simply because a highly experienced surgeon didn’t take enough care. It is beyond belief.

“We don’t even know whether to believe the valve was reinserted upside down.

“We feel Mr Shah was simply incompetent, unsupervised and made a mess of our mother’s heart.

The devastated daughter said that her mum had the operation “to elongate her life, not to end it.”

Family of Sheila Hynes, who died after botched heart surgery at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle (Image: Tom Eden)

“She was a wonderful woman,” she said, “a beautiful person who we miss so much.”

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Mrs Hopper added: “For us, as Sheila’s family, the pain and torment continues as we have no closure.”

Mrs Hynes had rheumatic heart disease, a progressive condition which caused her shortness of breath.

The operation, which she was told held a 6% mortality rate, was intended to improve the quality of her life and to extend it.

The coroner said she has written to the valve’s manufacturer, the health trust and to the regulatory body about redesigning the valve mounting to prevent it being inserted in an inverted position. Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust expressed its condolences towards the family, adding it was “a one in a million complication”.

A spokesman for the trust said: “As the senior coroner concluded, The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has made necessary changes to its procedures and protocols to ensure that this type of event cannot happen again.”

The family’s lawyer, Nicola Evans, said that legal action would continue to be pursued.

She said: “Ever since the tragic and avoidable loss of Sheila in April 2015, her devastated family have battled for answers as to how such a serious, life-taking mistake could be made, and for those responsible to be held to account.

“Surgeons are aware of the catastrophic results of mistakes such as this, and in this case it has cost a much loved mother, grandmother and great grandmother her life.”